2009

SIBA Annual Brewing Conference & AGM 2009


SIBA: ‘working together’ for local brewing success

British independent brewers gathered at the annual SIBA Annual Brewing Conference in Stratford-on-Avon today, Friday 6th March, to hear the organisation’s plans to help its members build on their already impressive sales growth. Last week, SIBA’s Local Brewing Industry Report revealed a 10% increase in the sector’s volumes during 2008.

The conference theme of “Let’s Work Together!” reflects a growing belief within SIBA’s membership that, by joining forces with each other and with industry partners, they can not only weather the recessionary storm, but come through it in better shape than their larger competitors. This co-operative approach was evident in several initiatives launched today, among them SIBA Technical Services, offered in conjunction with InnServe, and a subsidy to encourage SIBA members to ‘Cyclops’ their beers.

Julian Grocock, SIBA chief executive, commented, “Local brewers are ideally placed to benefit from the growing consumer mood for local food and drink, sustainable production and low food miles – a trend that appears to be holding firm through the recession. Our aim at SIBA is to help our members to exploit this growing demand, by placing their beers in an increasing number of outlets, in both on- and off-trade.”

Access to Market expands

SIBA’s Access to Market campaign, now 10 years old, is designed to help its members bring their beers to market.  Its most high-profile success to date has been the Direct Delivery Scheme (DDS), which has increased the number of outlets supplied by its members by 50% since 2006, and grown throughput by 9%.

Now, two new initiatives will sit under the Access to Market ‘umbrella’. SIBA Technical Services is a flexible service, offering small brewers dedicated, quality dispense for their beers. According to last year’s survey of SIBA members, 70% them are unhappy with the level of dispense service they currently offer their pub customers, which generally involves putting their beer through someone else’s lines. Now, members will be able to call on SIBA Technical Services to provide a service tailored to the needs of their customer. SIBA will bill brewers for the work done on their behalf by InnServe.

At the same time, SIBA is working with Cyclops, the taste categorisation system that is favoured by increasing numbers of pub companies to communicate about beers to their bar staff and customers. SIBA is offering to fund 60% of the Cyclops accreditation fee, meaning that its members will have to find just £100 to have up to five of their beers accredited.  With at least one major pub group now requiring Cyclops accreditation for all beers on its guest ale programme, it is hoped the SIBA subsidy will help member brewers extend their customer base. Some 8% of SIBA members currently have Cyclops-accredited beers.

A further example demonstrating the power of co-operation between members came from Stephen Gould, chief executive of Everards Brewery, who spoke on ‘Project William’. This initiative, which won the ‘Best Innovation’ title in the SIBA Brewing Business Awards last year, aims to regenerate closed or unstable pubs by collaborating with small brewers, giving them a ‘fast track’ to building a presence in their area.   Nine pubs, run by four smaller brewers, are now running within the Project William scheme.

Early launch for SIBA Awards

This year’s conference was the platform for the launch of SIBA’s 2009 Brewing Business Awards, several months ahead of the launch in previous years. Now in their fourth year, the SIBA Business Awards have been growing steadily, both in the number and quality of entries. With a longer lead time, even more are expected to join the competition this year.  The Awards are judged by a panel of industry experts and the winners announced at a prizegiving ceremony in October.

Other speakers at the conference included: John Maples, MP for Stratford;  Mike Benner, chief executive of CAMRA; Pete Brown, author of ‘Cask Ale: The Intelligent Choice’ report; Stephen Crawley, chief executive of Caledonian Brewery; Ruth Evans, chief executive, BFBi;  Nick Tegerdine of the Alcohol Problems Advisory Service; and Hannah Dowell, the Home Office’s leading field worker on the Tackling Violent Crime programme.